Book 08, Diary of J.P. D'Ooge from 1899 July to 1901 · Sights

Title

Book 08, Diary of J.P. D'Ooge from 1899 July to 1901

Creator

Electa Jane (Jennie) Pease D'Ooge

Description

In the eighth volume of her diary, spanning July 1899 to the beginning of 1901, Jennie Pease D’Ooge documents her family’s residence in Germany and travels around Europe during her husband Benjamin L. D’Ooge’s sabbatical. She supplements her near-daily entries with photographs taken herself and by friends, dinner menus, concert programs, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera. She also makes sketches and transcribes short samples of music. In the back of this diary, Jennie records observations on German women and children and keeps a list of her young son Stanton’s humorous “speeches.”

Enroute to Bonn, Germany, the D’Ooges spend time with Ben’s sister and brother-in-law, Nellie and Henry Utterwick, in East Canaan, Connecticut, and visit New York City. They sail aboard the Holland America Line’s SS Maasdam to Rotterdam, take a steamer up the Rhine River to Cologne, and finally travel by train to Bonn. The family stays first at a Pension [boardinghouse], run by Fräulein Schlingensiepen at Kronprinzenstraße 13. In September, Jennie’s sister Ida Pease joins the family in Bonn, and Jennie and Ben travel to Paris “for a week of fun.” Guided by their “Badaeker,” they dine out, shop, visit landmarks and museums, attend operas and plays, and meet with Ypsilanti friends – including Michigan State Normal College professors August Lodeman and Edwin A. Strong – as well as Ben’s brother and sister-in-law, Martin L. and Mary Worcester D’Ooge. Upon their return, the D’Ooges move into furnished rooms with Frau Witwe Menniger [spelling varies] at Argelanderstraße 61. After moving out of Argelanderstraße 61 to travel in March 1900, Frau Menniger brings a suit against the D’Ooges, claiming they owe her 50 Marks. Later, in May 1900, the D’Ooges move to Luisenstraße 38 in the Poppelsdorf area of Bonn, run by Frau Taxer [or Taxar] and Fräulein Cornetius.

The D’Ooges develop an active social life in Bonn, socializing with their fellow boarders, scholars, and upper-class Germans and Americans. In particular, they befriend American Congregational pastor Nathaniel Rubinkam, his wife Sarah Shoemaker Rubinkam, and their children. They learn about local customs and celebrate holidays with their neighbors, attend elegant dinner parties and more raucous gatherings (“What would our temperance friends in America say to such goings-on!”), and enjoy excursions to nearby sights. Jennie describes this as a happy period for her family: “Such glorious days are what we shall long remember, after we are back, to the Grind of America.”

Jennie spends much of her time mending and altering clothing, washing dishes, cleaning the apartment, and tending to lamps, but she attempts “to do less working and more studying. Have decided that I am not here to do washings.” She seeks out opportunities to practice German, although she is frustrated with her slow progress, and enjoys conversing with the “gebildete Damen” [well-educated, erudite ladies] at Luisenstraße 38. She also stays in written communication with friends and family in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and elsewhere.

Ben studies at the University of Bonn and “is deep in his Cicero,” working on another book for his publisher, Ginn and Company. Because the family “can get along so economically” in Germany, they decide to stay in Germany for a second year, enabling Ben to continue his studies.

The elder D’Ooge children attend school in the mornings, Ida and Helen a private girls’ school and Len a Gymnasium [German academic high school]. They learn German quickly and make friends with classmates and neighbors. Ida and Helen sing in a school chorus and practice duets together, and in her free time “Ida has taken violently to knitting.” Jennie teaches Stanton at home, supposing “he must learn to use his head a little before next year” when he starts school.

The children experience various health ailments. Ida has eye problems from reading too much German text, suffers from neuralgia, has “not much vitality,” and one lung “might be a trifle affected.” Helen has eczema on her hands and, later, is instructed to eat more fruit and less meat and to get lots of exercise. Len has a bilious attack and jaundice, and subsequently Ida and Helen both have jaundice, too. As usual, Jennie seeks the help of local doctors while also treating the children with homeopathic remedies.

In October 1899, Jennie and Ben take a two-week trip to the Netherlands. In addition to major cities and popular destinations, they visit Zonnemaire, the Dutch village where Ben’s older siblings were born. They take photographs of Ben in front of his grandfather’s house and his father’s cottage. “I look back with great satisfaction upon our Holland trip. Certainly two people never before had such a two weeks of fun. We have enjoyed every minute, and gained a fairly good idea of the quaint little watery country. I have even more respect for the Hollanders than before, when I see the infinite pains and trouble they have been to, in order to keep their homes after they had made the land. God made the earth – but the people made Holland.”

In early March 1900 Ben embarks on a three-month journey to Italy and Greece, where he again meets with Mart and Mary D’Ooge, as well as Ann Arbor High School teacher Prof. Judson G. Pattengill and his daughter Caroline “Carrie” Pattengill. Ben documented his travels in his own journal.

Later in March, Jennie, her sister Ida, and the children travel via Frankfurt and Nuremberg to Munich for about six weeks. They spend time with Prof. Lodeman’s wife, Frances, and daughter, Hilda. Mrs. Lodeman is described as a “poor, nervous invalid” who is temperamental and at times even suicidal. Although her sightseeing is sometimes hampered “on account of so many children,” Jennie attends numerous operas and spends hours in art museums, including an exhibition of Secessionist art. At the children’s urging, the family watches the wedding procession of Princess Mathilde of Bavaria and Prince Ludwig of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They take a four-day excursion to Murnau, Oberammergau, Bavarian King Ludwig II’s Linderhof Palace, and Lake Starnberg, before returning to Bonn via Augsburg and Heidelberg. There are some missed trains, forgotten luggage, and other stressful incidents on the trip, but according to Jennie, “All it takes is some nerve to get along.”

Jennie, Ben, and their daughters spend four weeks in the Swiss Alps in September 1900, traveling via Mainz, Strasbourg, and Bern to Lucerne. Ben and Ida climb over 3000 feet up Mount Pilatus, and Ida is reportedly “the first little girl to go up.” The family explores “Tell country,” reading excerpts of Friedrich von Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell while trekking through the mountains and visiting landmarks associated with the Swiss folk hero. They travel back to Bonn by way of Frankfurt, where they visit the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe house museum.

In late October 1900, Aunt Ida Pease embarks on a solo trip to Berlin and Dresden. Meanwhile Jennie takes Stanton to Belgium for a week. They visit Aachen and Antwerp enroute to Ghent, where they have been tasked with buying rabbits from a Flemish breeder and having them shipped to Jennie’s cousin Ed Codington in Florida. They spend two nights in Brussels on the way back, and they go to the iconic Manneken Pis fountain: “I did not let Stanton see [the fountain] very plainly – it is too vulgar. To me it is characteristic of Brussels. I believe there is as much low-lived vice as in Paris.”

Date Span

1899 July to 1901 January

Original Object Type

Bound Journal

Subject

Alps, Swiss (Switzerland); Art and recreation; Art museums; Bavaria; Belgium; Bonn (Germany); Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.); Cyanotypes; Detroit (Mich.); Diaries; Dutch Americans; East Canaan (Conn.); Ephemera; Ethnic costume; Etiquette; Families; Family recreation; Friendship; German language; Germany; Holidays; Home economics; Manners and customs; Michigan; Michigan State Normal College; Motherhood; Music; Netherlands; New York (NY); Opera; Parenthood; Parenting; Paris (France); Photographs; Printed ephemera; Recreation; Rhine River; Sabbatical leave; Sewing; Shopping; Social life and customs; Switzerland; Theater; Transatlantic voyages; Transportation; Travel; University families; Ypsilanti (Mich.)

Cataloger

Alexis Braun Marks, Katie Delahoyde, Akaiia Ridley

Relation

04.JD

Rights

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